Button



M. ALLAND Sept. 16,1930.

.BUTTON Filed Jan. 16, 1929 Patented Sept. 16, 1930 MAURICE AL LANID, OF ATLANTIC CITY, NEW JERSEY- BUTTON Application filed January 16, 1829. Serial No. 332,877.

The object of this invention is to provide improvements in buttons, and particularly in that type which hasfor its generalpurposc the'eliminat-ion of threads as a medium for 5 securing buttons upon garments. 7

Many attempts have been made to design a button of this type which Would prove satisfactory in every way, but practically if not every efi'ort has been characterized by the endeavor to secure the button rigidly and nonrotatably as well as fixedly upon a garment, whereas there are serious objections to such a structure and none have met with favor, so far as is known.

In the buttoning of a garment, the part provided with the buttonhole tends to turn the button as the sides of the hole surround the periphery of the button, and while this movement has helped to cause the loosening of the buttons secured bythreads, it has been resisted by rigidly'fixed buttons to such an extent as to cause dissatisfaction by users, with subsequentdiscarding of such buttons.

An object of the invention hastherefore been to provide a form of button: which can be operatively secured toa garmentwithout the use of threads and for such a length of time that it will long outwear the usefulness of the garment, and can then be detached and transferred to another garment practically indefinitely, said buttonhoweverbeing free to turn at all times, as when being inserted into a buttonhole, or as when the wearer of the garment absent-mindedly twists and twirls the button from a'nervous habit, or as a child does playfully.

secondarily, it is the object of the invention to adapt the above-stated principle to buttons for use 'under diiierent circumstances and upon different types of garments,such as upon dress suits, business or sport suits, and upon uniforms both with plain andin'signiabearing surfaces.

WVith these and other objects in mind, the present invention comprises further details of construction and operation which are fully brought out in' the following description when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which Figs. land 2 are cesses within said head 7.

respectively aplanview and a diametricalsection of one embodiment of the invention Figs. 3 and 4 are similar views of a modified form of the invention; Figs. 5 and6 are similar views of a still further modification of the invention; and Figs. 7 and 8 are correspondingly similar views of still another depending boss 3. Through said central portion extends a bore 4, which is enlarged at its upper end 5 and is adapted to rotatably re-' ceive the shank 6 of an attaching member, which to a certainextent resembles a bolt, a head 7 carried by said shank being positioned within the enlarged end portion 5 of the but tons bore. Through a garment, represented by the dot-and-dash lines 8, an aperture is formed in any suitable manner, and through this aperture there extends the threaded end portion 9 of said shank, after which a preterably knurled nut 10 is attached to said threaded portion and turned thereupon, until the intervening portion of the garment material is firmly compressed between; said nut and the adjacent surface 11 of the button boss 3, the member 6 being rotated with respect to the nut 10 by frictional engagement of ones finger with the head 7 or otherwise as may be desired, such for instance as by means of a screw driver engaging a slot or a spanner wrench engaging apertures or rel/Vith the button thus firmly attached to a garment, to all intents and purposes it is fixedly secured thereto, but is at all times tree to rotate upon the shank 6 of the attaching member as when twirled by ones fingers, or when rotated during the insertion of the button through the buttonhole of another portion of the garment. p

Referring to Figs. 3 and i, thebutton here illustrated likewise comprises the central disc portion 1, peripheral portion 2, boss l 8 having an end surface ,11,b0re i, and en larged' portion 5 of-said bore, said butten being adapted for attachment to a garment face of the bore 4. In this construction, as

indicated by the dot-and-dash lines 8. The means whereby this button is secured to the garment is different from that illustrated in Figs. 1 and 2 in that it provides for widely differing thicknesses of garment material, without exposing any portion of the threaded button-engaging portion of the attaching member to the opposite side of the garment. In this case, a screw having a preferably knurled head 12, positioned within the bore enlargement 5, vpossesses also a threaded portion 13 of less diameter than the bore 4, said threaded portion being sur rounded by the internally threaded portion 14 of a complementary screw which comprises also a head 15 positioned, as shown in Fig. l, upon that side of the garment 8 opposite to thebutton, while the outer surface 16 of the threaded portion 1% is in slidable engagement with the cylindrical surthat hereinbefore described, the button is fixedly attached, as shown in Fig. 4, to a garment, bnt is at all times adapted to rotate without in an way loosening its degree of attachment.

Referring to Figs. 5 and 6, there is shown a button having a metal or other exposed surface of a type which prevents the use of an exposed attaching member such as in the case of the heads 7 and 12 hereinbefore described. In this form of the device, a button disc 17 is provided with an'axial bore 18, which extends also through a boss 19 and merges downwardly into a restricted bore 20. Within the bore 18 is positioned the head 21 of a member which is also provided with a thread ed reduced extension 22, adapted to enter the threaded bore 23 of an upwardly extending boss 24, comprising a portion of a complementary attaching member also havinga head 25, which is positioned upon that side of the garment 8' opposite to the button, said boss 24 being rotatable within the restricted portion 20 of the buttons bore in a manner similarto that illustrated in Fig.4, The outer surface of the button disc 1 is covered by any desired form of material 26 ofany shape or configuration, secured to said disc in any suitable manner whatsoever, as by means of the radially inturned circumferential flange 2'7. As the exposed surface of the button disc 17 iscovered in such manneras to directlypre vent manual engagement with the head of the attaching means, it isnece'ss y to provide said head with a transversely extending bore 28, which may be registered with aligned bores 29 in the o) )osite sides of the boss 19 so that an ordinary pin or needle may be inserted through said bores when iii-alignment,

thereby permittingrotationof the button to unloosen the attaching head- 21 with respect to the complementary member 2%, as without the use of a pin or similar device the button is freely rotatable with" respect to saidhead.

.ing said buttonhole and at all times thereafter, thebutton itself may be freely r0 tated or oscillated without in any way loosening its mode of attachment to the garment 8.

Referring now to Figs. 7 and 8, there is shown a button bearing an insignia 30, which from itsvery nature shouldnot at any time be inverted, wherefore this insignia isifound supported by a button disc 31, having a boss 32, from which depend any'suitable form of spaced spurs 83, which are adapted to be drawn directly into thelmaterial of the ga-rment 8-as frictional or other engagements of the head 34 of an attaching bolt. or the like rotates its threaded shank 35 into a correspondinglythreadedbore 36 within the boss 32 of the button.

Thus,there has been provided a series of buttons. designed to fulfill substantially, if

not all of, therequirements ofthegarment industry and possessingthe; features which 7 have beenbroadly stated in the above objects and which are also broadly specified in the claims appended theretoz f Having thus described my'inventiomwhat I claim and desire to protect byLette rs Pat ent of the United States is 1 The combination of a button having a bore, with a boss on said button through. which. said bore extends and provided with aligned apertures, and lnterengagmg male,

and female members rotatably positioned; and

overlapping each other within said bore, a portion of one of said members be1ng pro vided wlth an aperture adapted when; m]

alignment with'saidbo'ss aperturesto receive meansto permit the relative turning and separation ofsaid members-by manual ,engagement wlth sald button. V I

2. A button comprislng adisc portion having ac'entr-al bossand an axialbore, means to cover one end of sa-id' bore, the opposite? end of said bore. insaid bossbeing oflessdiameter, and the walls of said boss being provided with an aperture, interengaging: male and female members-normally threaded together and extending through and in rotat able engagement with sai'dbore, one of said members having a-head iwithin. the larger; l part ofsaid bore provided'with an aperture adapted toregister withjsaid boss; aperture, 5 a and the other of said members being provided with ahead which servesto bind the material of a garment to said button, saidbutton normally being freely rotatable with respect to said attaching member, and when an instrument is inserted through said boss aperture and said head aperture, said members being relatively rotatable and separable by manual engagement of said button and the head of the second of said members.

In testimony whereof I have afiixed my signature.

MAURICE ALLAND. 

